Maryland Citizens Want Offshore Wind

A citizen's conference in Maryland brought together more than 300 individuals interested in developing offshore wind energy in the state.

Annapolis, Maryland, USA --
Last week the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) held the first "Maryland Citizen's Conference on Offshore Wind Power" in Annapolis, the state's capital. The conference was sponsored by a wide variety of environmental groups as well as United Steelworkers, speaking highly of the diversity of groups interested in the development of offshore wind in the U.S.

A compelling case for the development of offshore wind in Maryland was presented to the overflowing audience of more than 300. More than half of the state’s energy comes from coal and half of that coal comes from destructive surface mining in the western part of the state. Two thirds of MD’s coal-fired power plants are over 30 years old and the tidal marshlands on the Eastern Shore are losing an acre a day as a result of sea-level rise. Finally the MD transmission grid is severely challenged.

The Mid-Atlantic Bight is a 50,000 square-mile portion of the ocean that stretches from New York to Virginia that has promising wind resources in 50-300 feet of water. Robert Mitchell of the Trans-Elect Development Company explained how he hopes to develop a 350-mile offshore power grid to bring wind energy to the nearby population centers.

Mitchell has secured Google as a major investor, which has raised the awareness of his initiative considerably. Mitchell said that this “backbone” for offshore wind farms will be a catalyst for developer interest and help smooth energy production levels as weather systems vary along the length of the grid.

According to policymakers in MD such as state senators Paul Pinsky and Rob Garagiola and delegate Kumar Barve, Maryland is poised to take the lead in offshore wind development. They are sponsoring legislation that would require utilities to enter long-term power purchase agreements in order to reach the state’s goal of 20% renewable energy by 2022.

Offshore wind could be a major component of that goal. The legislators explained that states should take the lead to make renewable energy happen in lieu of a coherent energy policy at the federal level.

An Unlikely Alliance

It’s not every day that environmental activists and blue-collar workers can agree on common goals. But that is exactly what is happening in Maryland and other regions where groups like the United Steelworkers (USW) recognize the incredible manufacturing potential that wind power holds.

At the conference, Jim Strong, Sub-District Maryland Director for the USW explained how jobs will be created if wind turbine components are manufactured domestically. “In a stalled economy, few industries have the potential to bring more jobs to our state than the renewable offshore wind industry,” he said. “We want to make sure our state leads in this economic and environmental area and is not left behind by other states.”

The government of Maryland agrees. Director of Maryland’s Energy Administration, Malcolm Woolf said that the state would like to create 100,000 green jobs by 2015 and estimated that 1000 MW of offshore wind energy would create about 4,000 jobs. This partnership between environmental advocates and blue-collar workers was the most encouraging sign of moving beyond the “us versus them” mentality that has framed the argument for renewable energy to date.

Perhaps most telling of the success of the conference was the broad cross-section of citizens it attracted. “Rarely do you see such a strong coalition united behind so many benefits,” said Mike Tidwell of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, one of the key sponsors of the event. “When you can create jobs, protect consumers, and help fight global warming, you’ve got the ultimate win-win-win.”

Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, spellbound the aging “hippies” and passionate youth in the audience with his presentation of striking energy statistics. He said that the U.S. should be a leader in the renewable energy economy. Of course, that has been said many times and savvy business investors pointed out that federal government commitment is also needed to streamline the regulatory process and provide long-term guarantees for return on investment.

9 Comments

I have seen statistics that purport to show that offshore wind is more expensive than on-shore wind. If that is so, can someone explain why it is important to legislate a requirement that utilities enter into long-term contracts for off-shore wind? Is it because the price would come far down with a long-term contracted, or the amount of on-shore wind is limited, or that we in Maryland won't make our renewable energy portfolio standard without the off-shore wind, or some other reason? I'm not an opponent of this move by any means, I'm just trying to understand the thinking on this issue. Thanks.

That's the folly of these offshore wind schemes, people quote "capacity" of the wind turbines when they will never exceed 1/3 of that capacity. The electricity will cost 2-4 times as much as other sources and eventually the turbines won't be able to keep up with their very expensive maintenance.

Maryland should be able to reach their goal of 20% renewable energy by 2020 using wind and or other resources. I think wave and water current energy should be considered as well if sources can be found close to the shore.

Wind power is growing because of all the subsidies and no viable options - it isn't growing because it is an alternative, it is simply an expensive "supplement."

ANONYMOUS
December 8, 2010

The comments above seem naive. The growth of Wind Power worldwide is out pacing all other sources of power generation.We (USA) just got up into the big leagues with countries like Germany,several Scandinavians,Spain and the like in wind power, and should be proud of it.The article states there is nearly full support for this great project, and then the first commenter and Andrew W above suggest this to be a waste ...? Maybe they are in the Coal business? This is the future of our energy. Get used to it.

I'm new to this arena although I've had an interest since the seventies when it was the answer back then.

Like distributed computing power, I'd like see distributed generation. I think decentralized, on site solutions to power generation are the proper goal.
a. eliminate monopolistic utilities and their control over distribution and rates
b. eliminate the worry of mass destruction of major power sources
c. I'd hate to see us invest again in energy ideas like ethanol (wrong twice now) that take more energy input than the energy you produce.

@Anonymous...East Coast wind in the ocean makes sense for several reasons. First, it solves the NIMBY problem, which is non-trivial in densely populated areas like Maryland. Second, as is the case with this project, it drastically eases the transmission issue by allowing cables to be laid on the sea floor without the kind of permitting nightmare that would be involved in developing new transmission lines through dense populations. Finally, as regards maintenance issues etc., not only are these types of systems presently installed throughout northern Europe, but the burden of maintenance falls on the owners, not the customers, and is factored into the contracted electricity costs beforehand.

I believe that offshore wind, particularly in the northeast US, has an important role to play as part of the renewable energy mix.

ANONYMOUS
December 8, 2010

That is just stupid! Why would anyone put wind generators in the middle of an ocean? How do you service them when they need serviced every week? How do you start a manufacturing plant without millions is start up capital to compete with those that are already doing it? How much more tax payers money must we waste on these white elephants before common sence (cents) prevail. Go solar already it does not bend, bust, rust or break!

Add Your Comments

Eric Greene received his S.B. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979. He founded Eric Greene Associates, Inc. in 1987 to serve the high technology engineering requirements of...